Dennis RomeroLos Angeles is the greatest city on Earth. Tacos. Pretty people. Beaches. Culture. Boba. Harry Perry. All that. You get the picture.
But we would not blame you one bit if you packed up your shit and said, Fuck it, I've had enough.
We have the least affordable rents in the nation. And you'd officially have to be wealthy to afford just a median-priced ($600,000!) home in this town.
It's becoming impossible.
So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to learn that a recent analysis by Realtor.com found that Los Angeles was one of the top five “cities losing the most residents” in the United States.
The site looked at data from the U.S. Census, from the website moving.com, and from its own listings.
“America’s largest cities are losing armies of residents, and there just aren’t enough people moving in to compensate,” the site states. “On the West Coast … soaring home prices are pushing locals out and scaring away potential new ones.”
(Our recent reporting shows that while some less-affluent residents have been leaving L.A., growth continued this year. The Realtor.com folks say they've based their analysis partially on 2009 to 2013 U.S. Census data, which could explain the discrepancy.)
So where are we moving?
“Angelenos head to Las Vegas,” Realtor.com states. “And everyone is moving to Texas! Must be the breakfast tacos.”
This makes some sense.
Vegas is relatively close (the L.A. County line once extended to the Nevada border), and its housing prices, hit hard by the Great Recession and the subprime real estate debacle, are still much more affordable than what you find locally.
Nationally, the hot cities Americans are flocking to include Tampa and Jacksonville in Florida and Charlotte in North Carolina, realtor.com says.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
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